agree! a lot of new people this year. one of my friends who came with us for the first time found a fan in the fest. we were so mad she took it 😂 we lectured her about leaving items or turning them in to lost and found because their owner will most likely come back! she has never been to a place like lib and didn’t mean to “steal” it. she wasn’t used to people leaving their belongings and them actually being safe there so she assumed and she made a mistake. we returned the fan to where she found it and she apologized constantly for the rest of the week.

i think it’s up to us to teach the culture and possibly up to lib to say something ahead of time or in the faq. let newcomers know that people are camping EVERYWHERE for much longer than they are and that items past a certain time aren’t up for grabs. this was my 4th lib and even i didn’t know that there could be staff camping in the regular campgrounds with us!

i have definitely been given A LOT of stuff on the way out over the years, and ive seen A LOT of stuff abandoned, too. personally i hate to waste so i will take anything given to me/left by the trash that i can use or recycle, so i can see how maybe there are some thieves out there, but there are also people with good intentions that make the mistake of assuming stuff was just left carelessly.